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Blood found in rural Pilot Mound confirmed as Shepard’s

DCI has released this photo of the pickup truck of the abductor, Michael J. Klunder, 42. The truck has a silver Tommy Lift tailgate, and a silver toolbox located only on the driver’s side. The truck has no license plate, but does have a DOT paper plate behind the driver’s side on the back window. Anyone who may have seen the vehicle between the hours of 4:50 p.m. and 8:20 p.m. on Monday should contact law enforcement at (515) 573-1410

Greg Eckstrom

Editor

At a press conference Thursday in Dayton, officials with the Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Investigation disclosed that blood found at a hog confinement in rural Pilot Mound were identified as belonging to Kathlynn Shepard – a 15-year-old that has been missing since being abducted near her bus stop in Dayton on Monday.

According to officials, during the initial search of 3023 400th Street in rural Pilot Mound, several areas of what appeared to be blood were discovered and collected. Two of these items were on the ground and one was on the inside of the tailgate of the pickup. All three initially tested positive for human blood, and DNA testing completed Thursday morning confirmed the blood is from Shepard.

Shepard is still missing and the search continues.

In hopes of receiving more information, DCI has released a photo of the pickup truck of the abductor, Michael J. Klunder, 42. The truck has a silver Tommy Lift tailgate, and a silver toolbox located only on the driver’s side. The truck has no license plate, but does have a DOT paper plate behind the driver’s side on the back window. Anyone who may have seen the vehicle between the hours of 4:50 p.m. and 8:20 p.m. on Monday should contact law enforcement.

The abduction occurred Monday after Shepard and a 12-year-old girl, who has not yet been identified by officials, got off their bus stop in Dayton. At that time, the girls were lured into Klunder’s truck with the offer to earn money for mowing grass. The girls indicated they needed to ask their parents first, at which time Klunder offered them a ride to their house.

In the truck, Klunder did not stop at their homes, but drove the two to the hog confinement in Pilot Mound where he took them to an office attached to the hog building and zip-tied both of their hands. Klunder took Shepard out of the building, at which point the 12-year-old was able to free her hands and escape, taking with her a gun used to euthanize animals that was in the office. She ran to the woods and discarded the gun, waited a short time and then ran through a wooded area and across a field to a farmer’s house, where they called 911.

Since that time, authorities have been searching for Shepard. Klunder was found at approximately 8 p.m. at 339 Taylor Avenue in rural Dayton, dead. An autopsy conducted by the State Medical Examiner’s Office concluded the manner of death as suicide and the cause of death as hanging.

The girls’ backpacks were found in the 400 block of Kale Avenue, in Boone County, on Tuesday, and since then the area has been included in a search that includes Fraser, Dayton, Stratford, Pilot Mound and rural areas in Boone, Webster and Hamilton counties.

Law enforcement is also now looking at areas approximately 10 miles north and northwest of the site where Klunder’s body was located – 339 Taylor Avenue in rural Dayton. In support of these search efforts, area farmers are being asked to search their own outbuildings and surrounding grounds. Area residents that have any abandoned buildings on their property are asked to please look in and around them, or call law enforcement and a team will search the building.

As the search area is primarily rural and uninhabited terrain, investigators continue to solicit information from locals and frequent visitors. In particular, investigators are asking any hunters that may have placed hunting cameras in the area to check their recorders and report any findings to law enforcement. They are asked to call (515) 573-1410.

According to officials, reports were made Thursday that bones were found during a search, however the bones that were found were not human.

Those that would like to contribute to the search for Shepard are asked to call Webster County Emergency Management at (515) 571-6483, and are asked to leave a message for search coordinators indicating name and contact number, as well as any resources they might be able to provide.